We’re now into the third week and now get a sense of how ‘Arrow’ will be tailored for each episode: there’s the voice over with Oliver’s thoughts and intentions, the wonderfully gratuitous shirtless shot of him in whatever activity requires him to be shirtless, and the list. Luckily, all three happens in the first 5 minutes of the episode! But what makes ‘Lone Gunmen’ special, is that Oliver, who thinks he can clean up Starling City on his own, is going to need help from a few people.

Let’s get to the recap!

 (Warning! Spoilers ahead)

Oliver is reintroducing himself via a voice over to those viewers who missed the last two episodes and don’t know what the series is about. If you have been following, watching him work out is a nice way to waste the time as he catches everyone else up.

He’s picked his next target: James Holder. Only problem is that while he tries to bring those on the list to justice someone else just wants them dead. Hence “someone” (okay, we know it’s the assassin/mercenary Deadshot) shots Holder in the heart. Unfortunately before the sniper gets away, he’s able to get a shot out at Oliver who is grazed.

Oliver heads back to his lair and stitches himself up. He crosses Holder off his lest before realizing that the bullet that nicked him was poisoned. He rushes to his island crate, removes an herb and potion to offset the poison.

Flashback to the island when Oliver was shot with an arrow (from the ending of the last episode): He wakes up to find the man who shot him helping him. He tells Oliver in another language that he shot him to protect him and proceeds to give him herbs and a drink. Then he pulls the arrow out of Oliver’s chest.

Back to the lair and Oliver wakes up and heads to home to find the police bringing in Thea for breaking and entering. He’s not happy when Moira allows Thea to stay home from school because she has a hangover and tells her she should be more like a parent, something she wasn’t when he was her age.

Later, Oliver is back in his lair and tests the blood left on the gauze from his wound. It comes back positive for curare. He searches the web (as he has now become an unbelievable hacker) and sees that the killer with an MO of using this poison is named ‘Deadshot.’ He’s now at the top of Oliver’s list of people to bring to justice!

More gratuitous ab shot (not like I’m complaining!) but this time it’s Michael Rowe as Deadshot who tattoos all the names of his victims on his body. He adds Holder to his “collection.”

Oliver takes Tommy (with Diggle in tow) to the now abandoned Queen Industries factory building and tells him of his plans of turning it into a nightclub. In reality, the nightclub will be a front as Oliver’s secret base of operations is located in the basement below and it will give him an excuse as to where he spends his nights when not at the Queen mansion.

Oliver was able to retrieve one of Deadshot’s bullets that was stuck in a wall and is able trace it back to the Bratva Mob, a Russian organization that hired the assassin. He heads to an auto shop with links to mob and asks to see someone by the name of Alexi Leonov. After Oliver shows him a tattoo that indicates he is part of the Bratva mob, Alexi reveals himself. Oliver tells him he is looking to hire someone who uses the same ammo as the one used by Deadshot, but Alexi claims he knows of no one who uses that particular bullet laced in curare but he’ll look into it and, by the way, if Oliver is not the person he says he is, then he and his family will be killed.

Meanwhile, Deadshot has claimed another victim and is tattooing his name on his stomach.

Lance and Hilton meet with the Queens as Walter has a connection to the two prior deaths that have occurred. Apparently they are all looking into buying the company Unidac and surprisingly, Walter’s competitors are dropping like flies…dead flies. Hilton tells them that they are warning all the prospective buyers about the threat of someone killing off prospective buyers but Moira doesn’t believe that is why Lance is there.

That night, Oliver and Tommy party at Fuller’s club. Diggle is unable to get past the ropes and is left behind. They see Laurel at the bar and join her. Thea sees her brother and runs up to him. She’s obviously wasted and Oliver decides to take her home. Thea gets angry at the old “big brother” bit from Oliver and decides to be hurtful and tell him about Tommy and Laurel’s fling. Oliver tells them he understands but is still determined to take Thea out of the club. She tells him to unhand her and stomps off.

The owner of the nightclub, Fuller, sees Oliver and takes him to the back for some unfinished business. He still hasn’t forgiven Oliver for sleeping with his fiancé on the night before their wedding (oops!). Tommy tries to intervene and a fight breaks out.

Laurel comes in and does some major martial arts on Fuller and takes him down. Fuller, not happy that he’s been taken down by a girl, bans them for life from his club. Laurel tells a stunned Oliver and Tommy that her dad taught her self-defense and as she leaves, yells at Oliver that what happened between her and Tommy doesn’t need his forgiveness or blessing.

Oliver gets a phone call from Alexi who gives him the information of where Deadshot is staying. While working on his next target, Oliver sneaks to his motel room and barges in. Bullets and arrows fly but Deadshot was able to get away. Arrow takes his laptop and leaves before the cops arrive.

The next morning, Oliver asks Felicity Smoak, IT expert, to see if she could salvage any data off his bullet ridden computer. Felicity is able to extract the blueprints that Deadshot was looking at before Arrow came in. She tells Oliver that she knows that the computer isn’t his and that it belongs to Warren Patel who just happens to be planning on bidding on the same building that Walter is at the auction.

The pieces begin to fall into place and Oliver heads out to enlist Det. Lance to help protect the other buyers. He tells Lance that he needs to protect the other buyers from Deadshot and that Patel hired him. He leaves the computer as proof.

Oliver observes inside the Exchange Building as the auction is about to go down. He watches the police get into position as Hilton takes Patel into custody. Unfortunately, Deadshot is in the building getting ready for target practice. In a moment of unguarded concern, Oliver tells Diggle to keep his eyes open because if Deadshot was going to take a shot, it would happen before the auction began.

Lance notices a laser on Walter’s jacket as Deadshot pulls the trigger. He tackles Walter to the ground as shots are firing in the foyer. Oliver commands Diggle to get Moira and Thea out of the building as he leaves and grabs his suit in a nearby trash can.

As Arrow, he gets to Deadshot’s hiding place and they fight. A show down commences as Deadshot fires off his gun at Arrow. Arrow quickly shoots off an arrow before taking safety being a pillar. His aim is true as the arrow lands in Deadshot’s eye.

In a flashback, Oliver manages to escape from his captor turned rescuer while he slept. Oliver quickly runs through the jungle putting as much space between him and the green hooded man but manages to get trapped in a net. The green hooded man finds Oliver and tells him it is too dangerous for one man to be alone and frees him. He tells Oliver “they” will kill him and walks away. Oliver follows. Later, men in black mercenary outfits see the net and know what ever was in there escaped.

While Arrow comes out unscathed, Diggle did not. Before Diggle completely loses consciousness due to the curare laced bullet, Arrow takes him to his lair where he quickly mixes up an antidote to give to his bodyguard. As Diggle awakens, he sees Oliver in his Arrow garb…

Episode Reactions:

This episode was far more enjoyable than the last episode only because the soap opera aspect was a bit toned down and the big DC villain (Deadshot) had a much bigger role than China White did last week.  One thing I have noticed, however, is the lack of use of the super villains in the show.  Last week China White was briefly seen and introduced and this week, Deadshot was quickly killed off. It would be nice to see a villain actually stick around for a few episodes instead of theses easy wins Arrow seems to have had with these two.

The characters are really beginning to develop and I like how new aspects of each role are slowly being revealed each week slowly bringing you more committed to not only the character but to the show overall. We begin to really see the dysfunction of the Queen family and how Moira and Thea want to connect but are having difficulties doing so. Also seen in this episode is how very observant Diggle actually is which is why it’s a little disappointing that the writers didn’t let him figure out Oliver was Arrow but instead just let Oliver seen it for himself.

Another nod to the DC comics from the producers in the form of Felicity Smoak. For those who aren’t familiar, in the comic version, Felicity was a manager of a computer software company who later ended up suing superhero Firestorm, marrying his dad and becoming Firestorm’s step mom. Emily Rickards was great in this role which had a Felicia Day kind of feel to it. Hope to see more of her during the season.

And I can’t leave without mentioning Laurel’s martial arts skills when dealing with Fuller. This leads me to think that this is probably the beginning of her becoming the Black Canary!

What do you think ‘Arrow’ fans? Chime in and let me know what you think of this episode. Were you as unhappy as I was that Deadshot was taken out so quickly? Are you already tired of Thea’s antics? How do you feel about Diggle now knowing Oliver’s secret?

If you missed last week’s episode, you can catch up by reading the ‘Honor Thy Father’ recap. Until next week…!